Why Recycle PET Bottles?

PET #1 bottles and HDPE #2 bottles are widely accepted for recycling, and have mature markets available fore their usage. PET bottles are often “recycled” to reuse the material out of which they are made and to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills. Other uses for PET include down-cycling, the recycling of material into a lower quality material. PET typically absorbs the food and beverage that it is used to contain, which cannot be removed, and is difficult to sterilize using high heat because high heat will destroy it, therefore, PET bottles are also down-cycled into a lower quality grade of plastic, such as carpets.

Just like the PET 1 plastic that makes up soda and water bottles, HDPE #2 are widely accepted at recycling centers because recycling these materials can reduce the cost of products made from these plastics. Recycling a plastic is much more cost-efficient than creating it from scratch, therefore the cost of the materials use has a reflection on the overall cost of the product. And, just as with PET #1, recycling HDPE #2 also has the same effect of curbing the cost of products packaged within these plastics. It is also important to recycle HDPE for reasons that new products are developed from them.

PLASTIC BOTTLE VS. ALL PLASTICS

The key word to remember when it comes to recycling plastic bottles is BOTTLES. Any other plastic that would not be called a bottle should be kept out of recycling carts and dumpsters. Keep in mind that to be called a bottle, your item must have a neck that his narrower (smaller) than the base of your container.